 |
|
The Wine
The golden straw color leads into a nose of pears, starfruit,
and notes of butterscotch. On the palate, tart apple, pear, and
ripe apricot are laced with hints of vanilla cream. The easy
finish lingers long and lovely! Barrel fermented and aged in French oak for
10 months; 100% malolactic.
|
The Vintage
The 2005 growing season was wetter than normal by 23%, with
36 inches total rain: 24" in November and December, plus
less than 4" in January and February, led into an early
spring and budbreak. A cold and wet April, however, delayed fruitset.
Summer was nice enough, followed by a hot spell in September;
we began harvest mid-month.
|
|
Fermentation and Aging
Picked in four lots in August and September for ideal ripeness
as we worked our way down the ridge line and whole cluster pressed
a few hours
later. The juice was settled overnight,
then transferred to French oak for fermentation and 11 months
of sur lees aging.
623 cases were bottled in July 2006
The Vineyard
Originally planted in 1979 and 1980 on predominantly AXR rootstock,
portions of this 5-acre vineyard on the eastern slope of the
Santa Cruz mountains were replanted on St. George and 110R
rootstock
in the late-90's.
The unirrigated vineyard is on an east-west ridge and the soils
change
from gravel to shallow clay as the vineyard descends from 1,000
to 900 feet.
|
